


by the skin of her teeth

by tsuzurao



Category: Mad Father
Genre: Age Difference, Blood and Gore, Childhood Trauma, F/F, Female Friendship, Femslash, Ficlet Collection, Master/Servant, Nightmares, Organ Collecting, Past Dr. Alfred Drevis/Maria, Post-Canon, Psychological Trauma, Sharing a Bed, Surgery, They Drink Tea A Lot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-18
Updated: 2014-10-22
Packaged: 2018-02-21 14:11:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2471075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tsuzurao/pseuds/tsuzurao
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Assorted Maria/Aya ficlets based after the true ending.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 054. sister

**Author's Note:**

> prompts taken from [100women](http://100-women.livejournal.com/). prompt 054: sister

Maria is tending to the morning pot of tea when Aya asks, "Do you think mother and father ever wanted another child?"

For a moment, Maria is unsure how to reply to such a query. Aya, however, continues on undeterred. "I can't ask them now, but I think maybe mother wanted one," she says. Aya taps an index finger on the kitchen table lightly, hands folded over one another. Her ankles are crossed and she hasn't changed out of her nightgown yet, but Aya is seated like a young lady should be.

The sight makes Maria's heart twist up with a familiar ache. She pulls teacups and saucers from a cabinet while the water comes to a boil. "Perhaps she did, mistress," Maria says. Placing both cups on the table, slightly bent over to do so, she looks to Aya. Her eyes are lowered, lashes dark and thick against pale cheeks.

Maria sighs a tiny breath through her nose, her brow furrowing. "I think," she says, straightening back into a full stand, "you would have made a wonderful sister."

Aya glances up, eyes a glittering blue in the light. Maria stills. Even her lungs stop moving temporarily.

"You really think so?" Aya asks. Her words are soft, and Maria is reminded of the child Aya once was.

Maria breathes in and her body relaxes again. "Of course."

Aya smiles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for future reference, aya is 18 and maria is somewhere between 24-29. in my head at least. either way that age gap though.
> 
>  
> 
> [tumblr](http://yukinoyayoi.tumblr.com/) | [writing tumblr](http://nahoes.tumblr.com/) | [twitter](http://twitter.com/tailorsregalia)


	2. 002. middles

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> prompts taken from [100women](http://100-women.livejournal.com/). prompt 002: middles

The overhead light is almost blinding when Maria flips the switch to on. She steps around the surgical table, the click of her heels sharp against the wood flooring. To her left sits a tray with scalpels lined up in a row by size. In front of her lies the patient, hooked up to an IV drip, sleeping like the dead.

He came to their home suffering from abdominal pain. Aya smiled, soft and pretty, and promised a thorough examination. She's become good at lying, just like her father.

Maria watches over the patient whose name she never heard, her hands encased in gloves pressed together, resting atop her apron. Waiting quietly for Aya to come in and begin the procedure.

Today will mark the first time Aya cuts into a person on her own without Maria's direct assistance.

Maria looks up to the slightly ajar door then back down to the man, asleep and unaware. She knows the scene all too well, has been the aid more times than she can count. She's learned to have a steady hand and a calm pulse, and that's exactly what Aya wishes to have.

Aya pushes the door open fully with her back and walks in, gloves on her hands and face half covered with a mask. Her hair is pulled back into a small bun, loose but secure. Her eyes trail over the man's exposed stomach, move to the tray, and then to Maria.

Maria slips a marker out from the right pocket of her apron.

When this is all over, a kidney will be added to one of the jars downstairs.


	3. 068. fire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> prompts taken from [100women](http://100-women.livejournal.com/). prompt 068: fire.

Maria vividly recalls the smell of smoke and burning wood. She feels as though the fire is still blazing right in front of her. Alive and bright and consuming, invading her nose with fumes which sink into her dress for days.

She remembers an entire house crumbling down to the ground. Maria looks at Aya every morning while preparing tea and she remembers seeing a little girl lose everything she loved, and her heart breaks all over again. The years did nothing to heal her, only made her pain worse, and she knows the same is true for Aya.

Aya dreams about the fire, dreams about dead people and her parents. She's whispered her darkest nightmares to Maria after awakening from one and sneaking into Maria's room in the dead of night. Aya is a grown woman, beautiful and smart and lovely as can be, but Maria cannot erase the feeling of Aya curled up next to her like the small child she once was.

Maria remembers a child, strong in the face of fire when she was close to giving up. She's been stuck on the precipice of breaking for years. Every time she remembers Alfred, every time she sees Aya become more and more like him with each new anatomy journal and each new patient who comes to their door. Every time she wakes up in the morning and realizes where she is and where she's not anymore. Every time she smells smoke and flames flash before her eyes, she remembers a child and looks to the woman she is now and watches her cry.

Maria remembers, and her heart breaks.


End file.
